This week’s one hour radio broadcast focuses on the history of the draft between WWII and Vietnam, women that have elected to join the military service of the United States and future draft guidelines that may require all women to register for military service. 

Guests include Amy Rutenberg, the author of “Rough Draft” that exposes the race and class inequities of the Selective Service during the Vietnam War. Amy J. Rutenberg argues that policy makers’ idealized conceptions of Cold War middle-class masculinity directly affected whom they targeted for conscription and also for deferment. Federal officials believed that college-educated men could protect the nation from the threat of communism more effectively as civilians than as soldiers.

 

Navy Lt Cmdr Eric Fretz (ret) is an academic lecturing at University of Michigan. He is also the State Director of the Selective Service Board.

Dr. Fretz talks about his military service and veteran advocacy. Eric gives his insight into the National Commission on Service report on national service – Inspire2Serve.gov – that was finalized in March 2020. The commission recommended that women be registered by Selective Service in case Congress authorized a draft.